Western Railroad Discussion > Sex in the Elevator

I boarded the ‘TO.com’ train and took my seat in April of 2011 after a gentle but steady coercion from one “PRose”. I’ve known Bob since the summer of 1980. For the better part of my adult life he has been a good friend, a fellow railroader & fellow KS Gang railfan partner. We have shared in many photo safaris and even a couple of working situations whose details need not be discussed here. I had no reason at all not to trust him about TO. But he really had to work on me to talk me into it subscribing. I suppose it was because with zero previous experience in chat rooms or any other form of social media (save cell phone texting) I just “didn’t get it”.

Then I finally caved in. And I’m guessing my immediate reaction is familiar to a lot of you reading these words. In a very short time I understood how TO worked & what the website was all about. I had to ask myself: “What took me so long!” Like any other newbie to modern day cyber-social communication, some of the terminology used on TO was a bit baffling. The same goes for some terms used in digital photography since I was less than 2 years into it. I hung in there and learned the ‘cyber-speak ropes’ as best I could. But I needed first-aid quite a few times.

There was one particular photo description I read just a short time after coming aboard TO. I only saw it one time, but it caught & held my attention right off the bat. I kept quiet, hoping to see it again so I might be able to figure out what it meant. But that apparently wasn’t going to happen. So I sent a PM to the TO member who had used this term and asked him what it meant. If you’ve ever read any Sherlock Holmes stories at all you’ll be familiar with some form of this phrase: “It becomes clear to you my dear Watson, only AFTER I have explained it!” Hee hee, yeah buddy…..

The explanation was so easy to understand after Mr. “Super C” filled me in I was almost embarrassed that I had to ask. But with my playful & slightly irreverent sense of humor I loved it! I’ve borrowed his delightful term a couple of times since, but with my shot here I will offer a slightly altered version of his very apt description. Instead of looking at Sex in the Air (read: engine exhaust), I’m hoping you all will enjoy some “Sex in the Elevator”…

1. UP 4407 is under full acceleration with a westbound manifest on the old Rock Island GSR at Whiteside, KS on June 21, 2011.
(Thanks for the explanation, John… ;^)

Ain’t this hobby fun!
Lance Garrels
santafe199

---

I have been around the railroad all my life and intimately involved for over thirty years. No way does diesel exhaust conjure such feelings. Perhaps a 1 lb bag of M&Ms in the grip helps if you close your eyes while sitting on a locomotive at idle.

Out the door, perhaps 5 trains today with 100% blue MRL power, lets go to Blossburg! I am not talking about Blossburg, PA which I am told is 2200 miles east of the continental divide.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/14 06:23 by fbe.

Otherwise known, in aviation circles, as "jello air"...

fbe Wrote: ... No way does diesel exhaust conjure such feelings.
Perhaps a 1 lb bag of M&Ms in the grip helps if you close your eyes while sitting on a locomotive at idle...

Right again, Alan. You always are...

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3269998,3269998#msg-3269998>
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3267980,3268246#msg-3268246>
(Super_C Wrote:> That is called "sex in the air"! Outstanding shot, Mac. You captured the moment. JCL)
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3229303,3229303#msg-3229303>
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,2433879,2433879#msg-2433879>
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2402156,2402156#msg-2402156>
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?11,2073144,2073144#msg-2073144>

That is a very well composed shot. I've never known them as anything but "heat waves"...not much creativity between my ears, I guess. But, to call that phenomenon "sex", well, it simply misses the mark for me. AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

agentatascadero Wrote:
> But, to call that phenomenon "sex", well, it simply misses the mark for me...

Lighten up, guys! It's merely a visual play on words in this H-O-B-B-Y of ours. Here is a direct quote from my 5th link:
...It is much easier to describe the phenomenon as "sex in the air" rather than "exhaust induced heat distortion"...
Sounds like the phrase might have gotten its start in California long before I ever picked up a camera.

Lance

Sorry if I offended Lance, but this is not a matter of heavy or light, or right or wrong....it is a matter of taste, and, in one of the greatest truths I know.....there is no accounting for taste. It is a great photo nonetheless....maybe you should have put it out for a "caption this" thread and see what the peanut gallery has to say. AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

agentatascadero Wrote: > Sorry if I offended...

Absolutely none taken! Although I am ALL seriousness when I'm behind a viewfinder, I consider railfanning to be only a hobby. And I will always find ways to make this a fun thing. As I told another TO member a few months ago: "When I'm all done with this planet, I would like to be remembered as extracting the maximum amount of FUN I could out of railfanning."

Lance

Those are Heat Waves, not SEX. upkpfan

"Sex" has its place but not in front of a country grain elevator, night or day. Second rule: Don't mix sex with railfanning. Like Lance originally said, I, too, had never seen the word "sex" in any kind of rail forum before. Wonder if it shows up in passenger train discussions (No pictures, please!)?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/14 17:57 by JoCoLB.

Well, if you're doin' it right, sex does generate plenty of heat.

Out of ~1600 views this thread has generated currently I guarantee 1599 of them were only because of the word "sex".

In my 40 years of rail-fanning I've never... not once equated it in any way shape or form to sex.

There's nothing about trains I have ever found sexy.

A Boeing 757? Maybe.

But a locomotive? It's one of the boys to me.

Chuck

What happened to all of Super_C's sexy photos. They talk about them in the links above but I don't see any photos.

I thought it was a reference to the Aerosmith song but that was Love in an Elevator.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/14 20:25 by pmack.

Lance,

You have spent nearly all your life in KS, SD and MT, all places where winters are real winters. Now I never look over my shoulder when I am with the woman I love in February but I have seen frost on the inside of the room in some of the rentals I have had. So maybe this is how it happens. Better to see it explained in diesel terms than through cable TV programming.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

JoCoLB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Sex" has its place but not in front of a country
> grain elevator, night or day. Second rule: Don't
> mix sex with railfanning. Like Lance originally
> said, I, too, had never seen the word "sex" in any
> kind of rail forum before. Wonder if it shows up
> in passenger train discussions (No pictures,
> please!)?


There were prostitutes on the LA-SF trains in olden days, as I learned in the railroader's nostalgia forum.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/28/14 20:36 by sliderslider.

How many of us have used the phrase, "sex on wheels". It's all good folks....

example;
http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs7/i/2005/203/3/6/Ferrari_F_40__new_render__by_JetroPag.jpg

This is my favorite subject: "Sex in Railroading." It seems that there has always been "sex" in railfan publications. The late great rail editor Freeman Hubbard of RAILROAD MAGAZINE was in the habit of writing what in my wife's opinion were "creepy" letters to women who would send in train photos and/or were pictured in train photos and had given their ID in those innocent, wistful and sweaty years of our youth. Incidentally, the late great Hal Carstens bought RAILROAD Magazine and that is where Railfan & RAILROAD got the last part of its name. Now Carstens and R&R are gone like my first girlfriend "Karen" of the perfect legs...oh well!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/29/14 13:59 by railwaybaron.

As I recall, Virgil C. Staff's train videos usually included a leggy woman or two...

RNP47 Wrote:
> As I recall, Virgil C. Staff's train videos usually included a leggy woman or two...

(chuckling) How true! Somehow I think if I'd have included some kind of shot of a such a 'leggy' woman that hardly any of the reactions above would have erupted, including that pomposity about cable TV programming (I'm still trying to figure out what THAT has to do with a visual play on words??!). What mystifies me is some viewers seemed a bit offended about a subject **which was NOT AT ALL about sex**! A subject which has been talked about many times previously (see the six [6] links I provided): "Sex has its place but not in front of a country grain elevator"... Good grief, you'd think I just spit on someone's Grandma! And the phrase was coined (AND USED) by someone else long before I came onto the railfan photography scene.

As Milw E70 pointed out: "out of 1600 views, 1599 of them opened the thread because of the title". Human nature, and all that. If my title "Sex in the... excuse me: HEAT EXHAUST in the Elevator" is so out of line, why did SO MANY viewers open my thread? Hey E70, here's a question: Out of those 1600 viewers yesterday (now over 2000 today), how many of them do you suppose actually READ my entire dialog (thus discovering this was merely a play on words)??? Eight? Ten? Maybe even (gasp) a dozen??? Lately a couple of us have been playfully kicking around a newly-coined phrase, which I will now proclaim as an absolute truth:

"You can lead a railfan to words, but you CANNOT make him read them!"

Sign me: Still havin' fun with this HOBBY ;^)